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Donald Trump has dismissed a secretive inquiry into the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as “boring” and of interest only to “bad people”, but said he backed the release of any “credible” files, as he sought to stamp out a conspiracy-fuelled uproar among his supporters.
The US president is facing a political crisis within his usually loyal Republican Make America Great Again (Maga) base over suspicion that the administration is hiding details of Epstein’s crimes to protect the rich elite he associated with, which included Trump.
One of the most dramatic theories circulating among supporters is that Epstein – who killed himself in 2019 while in federal custody – was murdered by powerful figures to cover up their roles in his sex crimes against children.
“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday night when asked why his supporters are so interested in the case. “It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why it keeps going.
“I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going,” he added. “But credible information, let them give it. Anything that is credible, I would say, let them have it.”
During his election campaigns, Trump fuelled multiple conspiracies by his Maga movement, including that the country was controlled by shadowy “deep state” elites. This has caused deep paranoia among his base, who are now, unusually, questioning their leader over the Epstein controversy.
Last week, the justice department and the FBI announced that a review of the case files had confirmed that Epstein had killed himself, and there was no list of his clients to be made public.
Conservative allies of the president have focused their anger on the attorney general, Pam Bondi, who was leading the case, as she had previously said Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
Several other high-profile conservatives have called for Trump to make public everything known about Epstein. Even his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, a Fox News host, has been critical, saying: “I do think that there needs to be more transparency on this.”
On Tuesday, Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, called for the Justice Department to make the document public, breaking with Trump in a rare moment of friction between the allies.
“It’s a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it,” Johnson told Benny Johnson, a rightwing podcaster, in an interview released on Tuesday. “I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there.”
